Record-meter for talking-machines.



P. CATUCCI.

RECORD METER FOR TALKING MACHINES.

APPLICATION FILED APR-1L 1915.

Patented Jan. 25, 1916.

2 SHEETS-SHEET i.

P. CATUCCI.

RECORD METER FOR TALKING MACHINES.

APPLICATION FILED APR. 17. I915.

$ Patented Jan. 25,1916.

Q 2 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

4 f I \2 a 40 afi i 'l0 g5 1Z0 yet to run. The

ED STA PATENT @FFTQE.

PLINY CA'EUCCI,

OF NEW ARK, NEW JERSEY, ASSIGNOB TO A. F. MEISSELBACH 82;

BROTHER, A CORPORATION OF 'NEW JERSEY.

RECORD-METER FOR TALKING-MACHINES.

To all whom it may concern: I

Be it known that I, PLINY CATUCCI, a citizen of the United States, residing in the city of Newark, county of Essex, and State of New Jersey, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Record-Meters for Talking-Machines, of which the following is a specification.

With the advent of longer running motors for talking machines has come a demand for some device which shall indicate the length of time which a partly run down motor has length and strength of the motor spring determine the length of time which the motor, will run without re -winding. Spring motors are now being made which run from twenty-four to thirty minutes without rewvinding, and are capable of part of this specification,

reproducing in the ordinary manner, about five 12 records or seven 10 records,these being the usual standard sizes of disk records. After playing two or three records the operator usuallythinks it necessary to re-wind themotor; thisis usually a tedious process and sometimes interrupts a well arranged program and may spoil the entertainment.

It is the purpose of my invention to pro vide the talking machine motor with a.

meter, or measuring device, which will indicate at any time during the playing of a se ries of records, the amount or extent which the motor has run down, or what amounts to the same thing, the number of records which may yet be played without re-winding the motor. It is obvious that of this kind may be constructed in various but must contain certain essentialfeaways, tures; for example, a record meter, during the process of winding up the motor sprlng must indicate when the. motor is completely wound up, and the index must travel in the reverse direction from which it would travel during the running down of the motor.

In the accompanying drawings forming a Figure 1, indicates inplan so much of a phonograph record as is necessary for a full understanding of the operation of my improvement, with such improvement shown as an attachment secured to the motor frame. Fig. 2, is an end elevation of the device. Fig. 3, is aside ele vation. Fig. 4, is a section on line 44: of Fig. 3. Fig. 5, is a, section on line 5-.5 of Fig. 3. Fig. 6, is a diagram of the gear plan.

Specificatioifof Letters Patent.

a device Patented Jan. as, rare;

Application filed April 17, 1915. Serial No. 22,006.

Fig. 7, is a plan view of the. index dial and index. Fig. 8, is a section on line 8-8 of Fig.' 1. Fig. 9, is a section on line 9-9 of Fig. 8. of Fig. 8, but with the clutch members engaged. Fig. 11, is a plan, and' Fig. 12, is a side elevation of the clutch drag; 7

Similar letters of referencerefer to like parts throughout" thespecification and drawings.

I have only shown so much of a. motor and frame as is necessary to gather a full understanding of the operation of my device. The motor frame 1, may be of any usual or preferred type, the one illustrated being a well known motor now on the market. Mounted upon the frame 1, is a spring barrel 2, which contains the main or driving spring 2 of the motor. To the end of the spring barrel 2 is rigidly secured the driving gear 8, which drives the motor train. Upon the shaft 4:, of the spring barrel, is rigidly mounted the winding gear 5; the winding shaft 6, is carried in bearings in the motor frame 1, and has at one end thereof, a winding pinion 'Z, in engagement with the winding gear 5. It is obvious that the rotation of the shaft 6 will therefore wind up the vspring within the spring barrel. Rigidly secured to the motor frame 1, are the two shaft hangers 8 and 9 respectively secured in place by means of the bolts 10 and 11. The outer end of the hanger 9 is enlarged to form a bearing 12, within which is carried an adjustable sleeve 13, the adjustment of which is secured by means of a set g 'The outer end of the shaft 16 is reduced as at 17, and has rigidly secured thereon, a worm 18. The otherend of the shaft 16 is carried in a bearing in the shaft hanger, 8, and projects for a considerable distance beyond said shaft hanger in ord= to carry upon gear andclutch mechanism which forms the essential part of my improvement.

Fig. 10, is a section on line '101-0-... I

of sweating, or it may be the free end thereof, the I v Rigidly secured to the sleeve shaft 24 is a worm wheel 25, in position for engagement with the worm 18. The sleeve shaft 24 is provided with a shoulder 26 upon its under side to bear upon the under side of the arm and when the gear 25 is rigidly secured to the upper end of the sleeve shaft 24,s,aid

sleeve shaft .will be firmly held inthebaring without danger of separation therefrom. I may provide a plate 27, centrally. apertured to receive the upper end of the sleeve.

shaft 24, and secure the same to the arm 22 by means of the screws 28 at eachend thereof. The sleeve shaft 24 is extended somewhat below the arm 22, as at 29, and provided withseveral longitudinal slits as at 30, and the parts of the extension are pinched together so as to form a kind of pinch clutch mechanism, so that when the index shaft 31 is inserted into the hollow sleeve shaft 24, it will be held quite firmly in place and yet the index shaft 31 may be withdrawn, or .it may be rotated around within the sleeve shaft 24, when desired by turning the thumb piece 32.

When in position in a talking machine, the top of the talking machine case is provided with an aperture 33, which registers with the sleeve shaft 24, so that the index shaft 31 may be inserted through said aperture into said sleeve shaft; the upper end of pointer 34, which, upon the rotation-of the shaft will traverse the index dialffi The ad ustability of the bracket 19 is' de signed for the purpose of permitting the index .dial and pointer 34, either to be located upon the top of the talking machine case, or upon its s1de, as may be desired, for

the shaft 16 is ordinarily located in position just within the side of the case. and-the bracket with its arm may be adjusted to a position at right-angles to that indicated in Fig. 1, so that the index shaft 31 may be inserted from the side of the talking ma chi case if desired.

The shaft hang 8 is provided with an apertured bearing boss 33, which carries a shaft 3?, upon the outer end of which is located an idler gear 38, in engagement with the winding gear 5. Upon the shaft 16, in position for engagement with the idlergear is mounted a pinion 39; the hub of said pinion carrying a part of the clutch mechafriction wilf In practice I have found the ratio 8:3, to

givesatisfactory results; for example, the driving gear 3, has 128 teeth and the. gear 40 has 48 teeth; the gear 5 has 48 teeth, and

the gear 39 has 18 teeth, thus it will be seen.

that the ratios of the two trains of gears are thesame.

From reference to Fig. 6, it will be noted that the driving gear 3 normally rotates in the direction of the arrow; this will carry with it the gear 40 in the direction of the arrow upon its face. The winding gear 5 in the act of winding up the spring, rotates in the same direction as the gear 3 rotates; but through the idler 38 its rotation is communicated to the gear 39 which rotates in the same direction, and in the direction op- )osite to the ear 40. Thus the runnin of 1 b 7 if:

v the motor rotates the shaft 16 in one direc- ;.12 inclusive, to which reference is now made. j the index shaft 31 is provided with an index The gear 40, which as hitherto described is in engagement with the driving gear 3, is

and rigidly secured upon the shaft 16 by means of a set screw 43, is a friction disk 44. Mounted upon the hub 41 is an apertured friction disk 45, which is connected to the disk 44 by a plurality of screws 46, by which the disk 45 may be adjusted toward and away from the disk 44. Between the collar 42 and the disk 45, is located a corrugated spring wasl'1er47, the corrugations of said washer being sufficient to span the space between the adjacent faces of the disk and. the collar 42. hen the set screws 46 are pro )erly adjusted, a considerable. be exerted by the disks 44 and 45, upon the collar 42, through the spring pressure of the corrugated washer 47, so

that when the gear 40 .i rotated by the gear 3 its rotation will be communicated to the shaft 16; this rotation takes place whenever the motor is running, and since the rotation of the shaft 16 is communicated through the mechanism' hitherto described to the index 34, the position of the index pointer 34 upon the face of the dial 35, will indicate the extent towhich the, motor spring has run down. 5 But alone this mechanism will not reverse the direction of the pointer 31, so as'to indicate the degree to which the spring may be wound up. Additional gear and clutch" mechanism are therefore required to operate the shaft 16 in the opposite direction, so that during the winding up of the motor, the index pointer 34: may be reversely operated to indicate the degree of tension, or the amount of winding up of the motor spring. As hitherto ClGSCIZlbQCh' the second train of gears, namely 5, 38 and 39, are required. The gear 39 is looselymounted to rotate freely upon the shaft 16. The hub 18 is considerably elongated and reduced as shown in Fig, 8, and has rigidly secured upon its outer end a clutch cam 19,

vthe peculiar contour of which is clearly illustrated in Fig. 10.

Loosely mounted to freely rotate upon the hub 48, is a sleeve 50', having a collar 51 at its end, adjacent to the gear 39, and having rigidly secured upon its opposite end the disk 52. Diametrically located upon the disk 52, and pivoted at 62, are the two clutch elements 53, which are identical in shape. and of the contour illustrated in Fig. 10. Between the collar 51 and the face of the disk 52, is a groove 54; within said groove is located a corrugated spring drag 1'lng'55, the corrugations of which are of sufficient depth to bear upon the collar 51 and the adjacent face of the disk 52. This drag ring is" provided with a laterally projecting arm 56, which in practice is of either of the motor frame or its case. I have shown it of sufficient length to engage the apcrtured boss 36 upon the shaft hanger 8, when said arm 56 is swung around upon the shaft16. Adjacent to the disk is the cup-shaped clutch member 57, rigidly mounted upon the hub 58. which in turn is firmly secured to the shaft 16 by means of the set screw 59. The flange of the member 57 is provided with a series of radial indentations 63. If desired, friction. washers 64: may be inserted on each side of the collar s2, and a similar washer 65 between the drag and disk 52.

The operation of the entire structure is as follows: Assuming that the motor spring is completely wound up, the index 3 1 will be swung around to contact with the starting pin 60. If for any reason the index shaft 81 is not properly adjusted the contact of the point of the index 31 with the starting,

. run a larger number of records and the dial pin '60 will stop said index and hold the same in that position until the niotor is completely wound up, so that when, the motor starts'the index 31 will start from the start ing pin 60. As above described, when the motor is running the rotation of the main driving gear 3, due to the running down of the spring, will be communicated to the shaft 16, thence-to the worm 18, to the worm wheel 25, and finally to the index pointer 34. The ratio gear is so calculated that when the index pointer at has traversed the face of the index dial 35, and reaches the stop pin 61, the motor will have completely run down; but from the fact that as the motor spring runs down,"the spring itself becomes weaker and weaker, it is not desirable to utilize more than three-fourths of the capacity of the spring; for. this reason it will be noted that the stop pin 61 is located a considerable distance from the end of the divisions on the dial. The dial 35 is properly calibrated to indicate the number of standcated, but it will be understood that if smaller records are used a single complete winding of the spring will be sufficient to 135 would be correspondingly divided; if larger records than 12 records are used, then a fewer number can be played with a single winding 'and the dial will be correspondingly divided. If, after partially running down, it is desired to re-wind the motor spring, this is done by attaching the usual crank to the outer end of the winding shaft 6, and rotating the same clock-wise. As hitherto stated, the rotation of the shaft 6 will be communicated through the pinion 7 to the winding gear 5, which is rigidly mounted upon the end of the spring shaft 4. The rotation of the shaft 5 will be communi- I cated through the idler 38 to the gear 39, 110 which is loosely mounted upon'the shaft 16. The independent rotation of the gear 39 upon the shaft 16 will carry with it the disk 52 until such time as the arm 56 shall come inccontact with some rigid part of the mech- 115- anism, as for example, the boss 36. The drag exerted by the corrugated ring 55 upon the disk 52 will therefore stop the continued rotation of the disk 52 and sleeve 50, while member ST but slnce said clutch member 57, we

is rigidly connected to the shaft 16, the reso that the shaft 16 rotating in the opposite direction, will serve through the mechanism hitherto described, to swing the index at back toward the starting pin 60,'whenever and as often as the winding shaft '6 is rotated. Vhen the winding operation is completed the shaft 4 and the gear trains 5, 38 and 39become stationary, and the rotation of the gears 3 and 40 will then be communicated directly to the shaft 16, through the friction disks M and 4:5 and corrugated spring 47.

The winding up of the motor spring may take placewhen the motor is running without interfering at all with the meter mechanism except to combinein it both the rot-ation due to the winding of the shaft 6, and the running down rotation of the gears 3 and 40; this combination of motion in the two trains of gears will therefore be accurately reproduced upon the index dial 3?).

I believe that I am the first to design a self-compensating record meter for talking machines which will indicate, under all conditions of operation, the exact state of the motor, and I therefore desire to claim the same in the broadest language consistent with the scope of my invention. It is quite obvious that other forms of mechanism might be utilized for accomplishing the same result, and I believe that they will necessarily include a double train of gears leading from the spring shaft to an index shaft with sultable clutch mechanism connecting each of said trains of gears to said shaft, Y

whereby the operation of one train of gears will rotate said shaft in one direction while the operation of the other train of gears will rotate in the opposite direction.

lVliileI have 'described my invention in connection with a talking machine motor, yet it is obvious that it is capable of use in other relations, wherever it is desired to indicate the storing of energy in the spring of a spring motor. The pointer, as it traverses the index dial, will always indicate the degree of exhaustion of the energy stored up in the spring, or what amounts to the same thing, the amount of energy remaining in the spring after it has partially run down. Broadly considered, then, the device may be called an energy meter inasmuch as it is 1n-' tended to indicate or measure the amount of energy which is either stored up in a spring or which rem amsm the spring after the same has partially run down. The index dial, as shown in the drawings, is divided toindicate the number of standard talking machine records which can or may be played by the motor, butsaid dial may be'otherwise divided to indicate degrees of exhaustion of the spring, or the amount of energy remaining in the spring at any point in the process of utilization of such energy. I do not, therefore, desire to confine the invention to talking machine motors alone, and have therefore claimed the same broadly as applicable generally to spring motor meters or energy meters.

I claim:

1. In a record meter, the combination of a spring motor, with an index dial and a pointer mounted over said dial, means actu ated by said motor to cause said pointer to 'traverse the faceoof said dial in one direction while said motor is running, and means for causing said pointer to traverse said dial in the opposite direction when said spring motor is being wound up.

2. In a record meter, the combination of a spring motor with means for winding up the spring of said motor, an index'dial and pointer, meansactuated by said motor for causing said pointer to traversesaid dial-in one direction when said motor is running, and means actuated by said winding means for causing said pointer to traverse said dial in the opposite direction when said winding means is operated towind up the spring of said motor. a

3. In a record meter, the combination of a spring motor with means for winding up the spring of said motor, an index dial and pointer therefor, a shaft geared to' said pointer for causing the same to traverse said dial. in either direction, means connecting said shaft with said motor for rotating said shaft in one direction, and means connecting said shaft with said windingmeans for rotating said shaft-in the opposite direction.

4. In a record meter,- the combination of a spring motor, a winding shaft geared to the spring of said motor for winding up said spring, an index shaft geared to said motor, and a train of gearing from said winding shaft to said index shaft, an index dial and a pointer for traversing said dial. and gear connections between said pointer and said index shaft whereby the running of said motor will cause said pointer to traverse said dial in one direction and the rotation of said winding shaft will cause said pointer to traverse said dial in the opposite direction.

5. In an energy meter,'the combination of a motor, with means for storing energy therein, an index dial and a pointer, means actuated by the discharge of energy by said motor for-operating said pointer to indicate .upon said dial the amount and rate of such discharge, and means actuated by the storing means for operating said pointer to indicate upon said dial the amount of energy stored in said motor. i

6. In an energy meter, the combination of a spring motor, means for storing energy in the spring thereof, an index dial and a pointer therefor, means actuated by the discharge of energy from the spring of said motor for operating said pointer to indicate upon said dial the amount and rate of such discharge, and means actuated by said storing means for operating said pointer to indicate upon said dial the amount and rate of energy stored in the spring of 'said motor.

7 In a record meter for talking machines, the combination of a spring motor having a spring barrel and a main spring secured therein, a spring shaft within said barrel to which. said spring isattached, a driving gear rigidly secured to said barrel, a wind ing gear rigidly secured to said spring shaft,

a supplemental shaft, independent gear trains leading respectively from said driving gear and said winding gear to said supplemental gear to drive the same in opposite directions, and index mechanism operated by said supplemental shaft to indicate the direction and rate of rotation-of said supplemental shaft.

8. In an energy meter, the combination of a spring motor, means for storing energy therein and for discharging the same therefrom, and means for indicating the rate and amount of energy stored in or discharged from said motor, comprising an index dial and pointer, means connecting said pointer respectively with said storing means and said discharging means and operated thereby to cause said pointer to traverse said dial 'tlopies of this patent may be ohtained for andindicate the amount and rate of such storing or discharging of energy.

9. In an energy meter, the combination of a sprlng motor having a maln driving spring,

a spring shaft secured to the inner. end of said spring, a driving gear secured to the outer end of sa1d spring, a supplemental shaft, independent gear trains leading respectively from said driving gear and said spring shaft to said-supplemental shaft to drive the same at equal rates of rotation in opposite directions, and index mechanism shaft when the same are separately rotated,

or to indicate the differentials of their rotations when simultaneously rotated.

10. In an energy meter, the combination of a spring motor having a main driving spring and a spring shaft secured to the inner end of said spring, a driving gear connected to the outer end of said spring a and a winding gear rigidly secured to said spring shaft, an index dial and a pointer, a supplemental shaft geared to said pointer to cause the, same to traverse said dial, independent gear trains leading respectively from said driving gear and said supplemental gear to said shaft for driving the same in opposite directions, whereby the rotation of said driving gear will cause said pointer to traverse said index dial and thereby indicate the rate and amount of discharge of energy stored in said spring, and the rotation of said winding gear will cause said pointer to indicate the rate and amount of the storing of energy in said spring.

PLINY CATUCGE. 

